The Australian Enterprise and Service Provider (SP) Ethernet Switch Market grew by 12.4 percent year-over-year (YoY) in the first quarter of 2018, according to IDC's APAC Quarterly Ethernet Switch Tracker. The market, which includes data centers, ended up generating revenues of $122.4 million.

As businesses become increasingly concerned about the impact cybersecurity can have on business outcomes, security leaders should harness that increased support to improve their organization’s resilience while elevating their own standing, Gartner Inc. says.

According to recent Parks Associates TV-viewing research, video consumption from on-demand sources continues to gain a larger segment of viewership, while live TV viewership is on the decline. As the landscape continues to transform through both consumer viewing habits and the growing variety of content sources such as live TV, over-the-top (OTT) and online, broadcasters are looking for ways to present unique, relevant offerings that can adapt to this dynamic market while also being cost-effective.

Sixty percent of crisis management leaders believe that organizations face more crises today than they did 10 years ago, according to a new survey from Deloitte. Organizations’ confidence in their crisis management capabilities often does not align with their actual level of preparedness, however.

As smart functionality makes its way into homes and businesses, two devices are gaining a foothold into broader ecosystems to maximize growth and revenue opportunities: smart speakers and smart meters. According to IHS Markit, by the end of 2021, there will be an installed base of 328 million smart speakers and more than 1.13 billion smart electricity, water and gas meters.

Consumer demand for OTT content and online video continues to increase, and content delivery network providers such as Akamai have developed solutions that ensure the highest quality and security for clients and their end user, according to Peter Chave, principal architect for Akamai, in a podcast interview with BizTechReports in which he discussed advances in online video fidelity and the horizon beyond quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM).

Consumer expenditures on experiential location-based virtual reality (LBVR) in shopping arcades, theme parks and movie theatres are expected to reach $809 million by 2022, according to a VR Tracker Report from Futuresource Consulting.  

The advent of 5G networks will enable communications service providers (CSPs) to secure future market opportunities with manufacturers of autonomous vehicles (AVs) in the fields of driver safety and data processing and management, according to new research from Gartner, Inc.

Despite high ambitions for the smart manufacturing sector, mobile service providers (MSPs), are currently secondary players in this market, according to a new forecast from ABI Research. Consequently, their short-term opportunity in manufacturing is forecast to be only $2.6 billion by 2022,

As U.S. consumers look to update their televisions, increasing the size and picture quality are the top driving force, according to a new report from NPD Group. Of the consumers who purchased a 4K/UHD replacement TV, 45 percent reported buying their new TV because they wanted a larger screen, 39 percent for better picture quality, and 24 percent purchased because pricing became more affordable.

As Google and Amazon jostle to position themselves as providers of the leading smart home voice control device, Futuresource Consulting noted in a recent report.  "Smart speakers led the field in terms of popularity and adoption, closely followed by climate control, which has become the most common first installation - slightly ahead of security, lighting and smart monitoring devices, such as smoke detectors," says Oliveira, Market Analyst at Futuresource Consulting.

The predominant uses of smart speakers revolve around asking questions, checking the weather, listening to news and playing music – not for controlling connected home devices, according to a new survey of consumers in the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, Germany and Brazil, conducted by IHS Markit.

Employee engagement has surfaced as a major concern in delivering improvements in customer experience (CX), with 86 percent of CX executives in a Gartner, Inc. survey ranking it as having an equal or greater impact than other factors such as project management and data skills.

New data from Juniper Research has revealed that the total number of connected Internet of Things (IoT) sensors and devices is set to exceed 50 billion by 2022, up from an estimated 21 billion in 2018.

The growing power of smart home devices and services will increasingly extend their influence outside of the home and into wider smart city programs, according to a new report from ABI research.

Nearly 40 percent of U.S. broadband households now have at least two OTT video service subscriptions, according to new research from Parks Associates. The research firm notes that consumers have reached a new stage in connected entertainment where OTT is a standard source of video and viewers are more willing to experiment with multiple OTT services.

A whopping 77 percent of service providers will require some level of IT transformation over the next three years to meet the changing needs of their customers and remain competitive, according to 451 Research’s first-ever quarterly Voice of the Service Provider survey.

While IT, and most businesses, have been focused on operational excellence for the past 20-30 years, Gartner, Inc. analysts said it’s time security leaders put the focus on customer experience.

The total security appliance market saw positive growth in both vendor revenue and unit shipments for the first quarter of 2018 (1Q18), according to new research from International Data Corp. (IDC).

In the face of increasing pressure from over-the-top (OTT) video services, pay TV providers are stepping up their game, according to new research from ABI Research. Despite the competition from OTT video services, the worldwide pay TV market has been growing at a steady pace. ABI forecasts that the global pay TV market -- which includes satellite, cable, and Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) services -- will generate $295 billion in 2022.